Research In Motion unveiled a new name and a new line of smartphones Wednesday, aiming to lure back customers that have defected to mobile devices from Apple and Samsung Electronics.

The company, now know as BlackBerry, introduced a touch-screen model called the Z10 and a version with a physical QWERTY keyboard named Q10, both of which run its revamped BB10 software. The Z10 starts at $149 in BlackBerry's home country of Canada, where it goes on sale Feb. 5. The phone won't appear in the U.S. until March, with the Q10 following globally in April, the company said.

The event marked a do-or-die moment for the company, which has seen its market share fall to a quarter of what it was three years ago. It's counting on the BlackBerry 10 to reverse that slide and help return it to profitability. The stock dropped 12 percent after today's presentation, signaling that investors remain skeptical.

"I don't think it's going to be dramatically better," said Roger Entner, an analyst with Recon Analytics in Dedham, Mass. "At least not good enough to get people to switch from Apple iOS or Android."

Chief Executive Officer Thorsten Heins and Chief Marketing Officer Frank Boulben have been crisscrossing the globe to show carriers and corporate customers the BlackBerry 10's features, aiming to distinguish the product from Apple's iPhone 5 or devices that run on Google's Android platform.

'Has to have legs'

Heins has spent the past year overhauling the company, cutting 30 percent of its workforce in a bid to save $1 billion and reorganizing the sales and marketing teams. Its stock more than doubled since late September, reflecting growing investor support for the CEO's strategy and optimism that BlackBerry 10 phones can catch on with consumers.

Still, the shares have pared those gains every day this week, including Wednesday's slide, leaving it at $13.78.

The touch version of the phone relies on a virtual keyboard that learns where you usually hit the keys, improving typing accuracy over time. Its software also lets users check their e-mail, calendars and other features without leaving the application they're running - relying on a hub interface.

"Whatever you do, you're always one swipe away from the heart of your activities," Heins said.

BlackBerry also announced support for the new platform from makers of applications, including the "Angry Birds" game, Microsoft's Skype and Amazon.com's Kindle.

Heins brought R&B singer Alicia Keys onstage during the presentation, saying the company had hired her as its global creative director, a new position.

In an exchange with Heins, Keys said she had re-embraced the BlackBerry after trying other smartphones.

"I kind of broke up with you for something that had a little more bling," she said. "Now we're exclusively dating again and I'm very happy."

Other U.S. customers, though, will have to wait longer to get their own BlackBerry 10 phone. A March release in BlackBerry's most important market means it won't be available for more than a month. The Z10 will available first in the United Kingdom, where it goes on sale Thursday. In the United Arab Emirates, which Heins said is a key market for BlackBerry, it will be available Feb. 10.

BlackBerry name

The company's name change, meanwhile, has been approved by the board and BlackBerry will begin trading under the ticker BBRY on the Nasdaq Stock Market and BB in Toronto, Boulben said. The change is designed to put the company's flagship product at the heart of its corporate branding, he said.

The company's challenge now is to ensure that sales don't slow once the first wave of BlackBerry faithful have upgraded their smartphones. It also needs to win over skeptics who have abandoned the BlackBerry brand altogether.

The company was expected to finish 2012 with 4.7 percent of the global market, compared with almost 90 percent for Apple's iOS and Android combined, IDC said last month. BlackBerry had an installed base of 79 million subscribers at the end of last quarter, down from 80 million users three months earlier.

Marketing money

The company has about $2.9 billion in cash, giving it enough money to market the new phones aggressively. It will run a commercial during Sunday's Super Bowl, where advertisers are paying as much as $4 million for a 30-second spot.

Even so, turning Apple or Android users into BlackBerry converts will be "very tough," said Ehud Gelblum, an analyst at Morgan Stanley in New York.

"Certainly there's pent-up demand within the current BlackBerry base," he said. "But to assume they can go beyond that base and begin to convert net new Android or iOS subscribers? That's asking for a lot."